Wednesday 22 May 2013

I can't talk to you right now


A word prompt from writeworld. Write less than a thousand words using that sentence as a prompt. My effort is 849 words.
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“I can’t talk to you right now,” she said when he tried to pull her away from the others.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Go away!” she hissed at him.
He didn’t. It was really annoying.
“I’ll just wait here,” he said.
But he stood very close behind her; close enough for her to be completely aware that he was standing there. And he was watching her. The other workers gave her glances that asked questions with their eyes.
She emitted an annoyed huff. “Fine.”
She turned, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over away from the other women.
“What is the matter?” he asked. “You were fine this morning.”
“Shhh. Don’t talk about that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you have a girlfriend, that’s why not.”
“I do? You think I might have noticed.”
She blinked. “W-what?”
He looked at her. “No girlfriend,” he said. “I don’t cheat.”
“Well neither do I,” she argued.
“Maybe… but you do believe gossip.”
She was a little annoyed; her friend had been so certain. “Wait a second… but you did have a girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“So when did you break up with this now non-girlfriend?”
“Yesterday.”
She had met him in a bar yesterday. After talking for fifteen minutes, he had said he needed to make a call. She had gone to buy another round of drinks while he did it.
“You called her,” she accused, “last night, when I went to buy drinks.”
“Yep. The second I decided that I wanted to bury myself in you.” He whispered the last part at her.
She frowned at him.
“Is there a set time period or something?” he asked.
“Well… I … yes. Yes. There ought to be.”
“There is? How long should the mourning period be?”
She made an annoyed noise. “I don’t know. More than two hours.”
He chuckled at her. “If it makes you feel any better she did one of those ‘I was totally going to break up with you, when you rang’ things.”
“And you believed her?”
“I did. We weren’t good for each other.” He studied her. “Did I seem upset?”
“No, but you wouldn’t be if you were dumping her.”
“It was mutual, believe me.”
“And then you just boomerang into bed with another girl?”
“Well, given you were that girl and you enjoyed it at the time, I didn’t think you’d be complaining.”
She blushed.
He leaned in close and stroked a finger up her arm. “In fact… boomeranging into bed sounds like a great idea. I don’t think we tried that position.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “It isn’t a position,” she grumbled.
“No, huh? You know, if you like rules, then I shouldn’t be here. The rules state that I am supposed to wait two days, or is it three, before I even call you after a date.” He leaned closer. “Days of not talking to you, or calling you, let alone offering to take you to bed.”
“It wasn’t a date,” she said. Why was that the part she chose to argue about?
“You’re right. We haven’t been on a date.” He gave her a raffish grin. “You want to go on one now?”
“I’m busy here.” That was a point. He must have remembered that she told him she would be here this afternoon helping out at the thrift shop. He had really listened to her.
“So that’s a ‘later’?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on. Why are you so grumpy?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Lack of sleep.”
“Makes you grumpy. Got it. Good to know.”
“Well, you should. You were the cause.”
Another grin. “So you need to go to bed, then?”
She sighed. She was tired. And tired of arguing with him. “A date?” she checked.
“Yes. What time do you finish here?”
“I have another hour. It’s a voluntary thing, but I would like to stay to the end.”
“Excellent. I’ll be back to collect you in one hour.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Nope.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You will be here?” he asked.
“Yes. I suppose so. Where are we going on this date?”
“My bed. We’ll call it a sleep date.”
“Will I get any sleep?” she asked in a low voice.
His lips brushed against her ear. “Only if you want to.”
She smiled. She stroked the middle of his stomach with the back of her fingers. She knew exactly what he looked like under that shirt and she was very glad to see him again; even if he had worn her out. Maybe especially because he had.
They stood there very close together and they both sighed.
“An hour is such a long time,” he suggested.
“It is, but you can do it.”
He kissed the side of her head. “One hour,” he breathed at her.
She watched him walk away.
She turned to go back to sorting items on the trestle table. The old ladies held their tongues for maybe thirty seconds before they all demanded to know everything. They had heard quite a lot given they all swore their hearing aids never worked properly.
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© AM Gray 2013

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